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Money in the Bank (2011)
Money in the Bank (2011) was the seventh of thirteen professional wrestling pay-per-view events held by WWE that year, and the second installment in the annual Money in the Bank series of events. It took place on July 17, 2011, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. The event featured six matches, including two Money in the Bank ladder matches. Alberto Del Rio won the match for wrestlers from the Raw brand to earn a WWE Championship match at a time of his choosing within the next year, while Daniel Bryan won the match for wrestlers from the SmackDown brand for the same opportunity for the World Heavyweight Championship. In the World Heavyweight Championship match also held at the event, Christian defeated Randy Orton by disqualification and became the new champion as per the match stipulation. The main event featured CM Punk defeating John Cena to become the new WWE Champion. Money in the Bank was broadcast globally and received mostly positive reviews from critics, with the main event receiving the most praise. For pay-per-view buys, 195,000 customers paid to watch the event compared with 165,000 for the previous year. Production Background WWE's Money in the Bank pay-per-view events feature their own variant of ladder matches, where multiple wrestlers use ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. Two briefcases were contested at the 2011 event, one each for members of the Raw and SmackDown brands. The respective winners were guaranteed a match for the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships at a time of their choosing within the next year. The 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 Money in the Bank events featured a main event involving John Cena, albeit in different storylines. By November 2010, WWE had announced that the 2011 Money in the Bank event would take place on July 17, 2011, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Tickets went on sale in May 2011 through Ticketmaster with prices ranging from $25 to $300. Storylines The professional wrestling matches at Money in the Bank featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. These storylines provided the background to the 2011 event, which continued the storylines from the previous event in WWE's 2011 pay-per-view schedule, Capitol Punishment. The main event featured John Cena defending the WWE Championship against CM Punk. Punk pinned Cena in a non-title match on the June 13, 2011 episode of Raw, and then became the number one contender by winning a triple threat falls count anywhere match against Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio on the June 20 episode of Raw. After the match, Punk revealed that his WWE contract would expire at midnight on July 17, immediately after the Money in the Bank PPV ended; Punk vowed to win the championship and leave the company with it. On the next episode of Raw, Punk cost Cena a tables match against R-Truth, then delivered a worked shoot promo saying that he, rather than Cena, was "the best in the world"; he also berated WWE for not promoting him properly. Punk called Cena an "ass-kisser" and insulted WWE management—including chairman Vince McMahon and executive John Laurinaitis. In addition to saying that he was breaking the fourth wall by talking to the camera, Punk proposed that he could defend the WWE Championship by wrestling in other companies such as Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling after leaving the company with the title. As a result, Punk was given a storyline suspension and stripped of his championship match. Cena confronted McMahon and threatened to walk out on him and return the WWE Championship if Punk were not reinstated. McMahon relented on the condition that if Cena lost the title, he would be fired. On the following episode of Raw, McMahon tried to sign Punk to a new contract to ensure the WWE Championship would stay in WWE; McMahon agreed to Punk's demands and apologized to Punk before Cena interrupted the proceedings. The segment resulted in Cena punching Punk, so Punk tore up the agreed contract. The main feud from SmackDown was Randy Orton defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian. The storyline started on the May 6 episode of SmackDown, when Orton defeated Christian to become the champion less than a week after Christian had won the title. Christian would then invoke his rematch clause against Orton at Over the Limit, in which he lost. At Capitol Punishment on June 19, Orton defeated Christian to retain the title again by pinning him, after the referee failed to notice his foot under the bottom rope. On the June 24 episode of SmackDown, Christian demanded another attempt at the title from SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long; his demand was granted with the proviso that he could defeat Kane. Christian lost the match against Kane by disqualification after interference from Mark Henry. Long then made a tag team match for later that same episode, pitting the team of Christian and Henry against Kane and Orton with a similar stipulation; Henry pinned Orton in the bout. Afterward, Long offered Henry an attempt at the championship if Henry could defeat Orton again. Henry lost the match by countout after Christian engineered a distraction. This set up a match between Orton and Christian for the title at Money in the Bank. On the July 8 episode of SmackDown, Christian's lawyers in the storyline added a stipulation to the match that if Orton was disqualified or there was "poor officiating", he would lose the title to Christian. The Raw Money in the Bank competitors were announced on the June 27 episode of Raw with no qualifying matches; these were Alberto Del Rio, Alex Riley, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, R-Truth, and The Miz. The SmackDown Money in the Bank competitors were announced on the July 1 SmackDown as Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Kane, Sheamus, Sin Cara, and Wade Barrett. The feud between Big Show and Mark Henry started on the June 17 episode of SmackDown, when Big Show was forced to face Henry in a match. Big Show knocked out Henry before the bout began, creating a rivalry between the two. Henry interfered in Big Show's match with Alberto Del Rio at Capitol Punishment and on the June 27 episode of Raw in a cage match. Henry versus Big Show was later announced for Money in the Bank. When Brie Bella lost her Divas Championship to Kelly Kelly on the June 20 episode of Raw, a title rematch was announced for Money in the Bank. Kelly had been feuding with the Bella Twins since May 2011. Aftermath After CM Punk left the Allstate Arena with the WWE Championship belt, celebrity website TMZ pictured him showing off his newly won title belt on the streets of Chicago with Colt Cabana and Ace Steel. To crown a new WWE Champion, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon started an eight-man tournament on the July 18 episode of Raw, which included all the participants of the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match except Evan Bourne, whose place was filled by Dolph Ziggler. The Miz and Rey Mysterio made it to the tournament finals, which McMahon postponed so he could fire John Cena as a result of the conditions imposed on the Money in the Bank match. Triple H interrupted and announced that the WWE Board of Directors had removed McMahon from power in a vote of no confidence, and that Triple H was to take over the day-to-day operations of WWE. Triple H refused to fire Cena. On July 21, Punk gatecrashed the joint WWE–Mattel panel at the San Diego Comic-Con International with title belt in hand. He confronted Triple H and took exception to WWE attempting to crown a new WWE Champion.47 Two days later, Punk made a surprise appearance at a show hosted by the All American Wrestling company without his title belt to endorse Gregory Iron, a wrestler with cerebral palsy, as an inspiration for overcoming his impediment. On the July 25 episode of Raw, Mysterio won the tournament to become the new WWE Champion, and immediately had to fend off Alberto Del Rio to prevent him from cashing in his Money in the Bank. Triple H, now Chief Operating Officer, decreed that Mysterio was to face ex-champion Cena later that night for the title; Cena won and again became WWE Champion. After the match, Punk made an unannounced return to WWE with the old WWE Championship belt to confront Cena. Cena and Punk later fought in a match at SummerSlam on August 14 to crown the undisputed WWE Champion, which Punk won controversially as Triple H didn't see Cena's leg was on the rope and it was actually a rope break. As Punk celebrated, Kevin Nash made his WWE return and assaulted him. Del Rio then cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and pinned Punk to become the new champion after kicking Punk in the head. Punk regained the WWE Championship from Del Rio at Survivor Series in November 2011; starting a 434-day reign until The Rock beat him at the 2013 Royal Rumble event. After losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Christian, Randy Orton was granted a rematch at SummerSlam, where he won a No Holds Barred match to win the title.51 Meanwhile, in the storyline, Mark Henry went on to crush Kane and Vladimir Kozlov's ankles with steel chairs. He defeated Orton at Night of Champions in September to become World Heavyweight Champion for the first time. Big Show returned from injury in October 2011 to feud with Henry over his title. Daniel Bryan initially declared that he would only cash in his Money in the Bank contract for a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXVIII. However, on the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Bryan cashed in the briefcase after Henry had been knocked out by Big Show to become the World Heavyweight Champion. The match was voided by General Manager Theodore Long as Henry was not medically cleared to compete, and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. At WWE's TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs PPV in December 2011, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show. After the match, Henry assaulted Big Show which allowed Bryan to cash in his contract and pin Big Show to win the title. Bryan held on to his title long enough to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXVIII in April 2012, where he lost his championship to Sheamus. Kelly Kelly's next contender for the Divas Championship was Beth Phoenix; Kelly defeated Phoenix to retain her title at SummerSlam, and Night of Champions, but Phoenix ultimately beat Kelly for the title at Hell in a Cell in October 2011. John Laurinaitis continued to appear on television after Money in the Bank. In October 2011, he was appointed Raw General Manager, replacing Triple H as the on-screen authority figure. During Laurinaitis' rule, he feuded with CM Punk and later with John Cena, until he was fired in the storyline at No Way Out in June 2012. In later Money in the Bank events, John Cena, Randy Orton and Sheamus won Money in the Bank ladder matches in 2012, 2013 and 2015 respectively. Cena cashed in on CM Punk and won via disqualification; thus Punk retained the WWE Championship.Orton cashed in on Daniel Bryan and captured the WWE Championship. Sheamus cashed in on Roman Reigns and captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In WWE's documentary CM Punk: Best in the World released in 2012, it was documented from the out-of-universe perspective that a disenchanted Punk rejected signing a new contract with WWE for more than a year leading up to Money in the Bank. After being persuaded by Joey Mercury and Lars Frederiksen that he could only help wrestlers underappreciated by WWE (like himself) if he stayed, Punk signed a new contract with WWE about an hour before capturing the WWE Championship from Cena, while the pay-per-view event was ongoing. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Money in the Bank Category:Money in the Bank Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2011 Pay-Per-View Events